With a flick of his wrist, he flung his cowl over his head before activating stealth.

“Really? You are running away from me? Are you really that afraid of a girl.” Kitty stood with her arms crossed as she glared at where he had been.

“Go annoy someone else.” Dren said and her head snapped to where he had already moved too. To his surprise she lunged faster than he expected, both arms coming together but only catching air.

“Fine. Be an ass.” She growled after catching her balance. “Coward. Nerd. Dork. Stupid mask wearing weirdo.” She huffed and glared all around her waiting for a counter. But after several long moments of silence, she deflated and muttered. “Damn it, Kitty. Why do you always have to be a bitch when you like a guy? You’re not five. Ugh.”

*****

With a pleased sigh, he finished pumping the last bit of resources into his new dagger. Both had turned out better than he expected. Better than the smith had expected too as he practically begged Dren to give him more metals to work with. Apparently, they had gotten three full levels from finishing the two daggers. A staggering amount of experience. It hadn’t been fully the same as when he made his spatial bag but not too far from it. Speaking of spatial bags, he had made a new one that actually exceeded his original. Not by much, just six cubic meters of storage instead of five. But enough. He still gave the new bag to Ren preferring to keep his original one for himself.

Fully enchanting both daggers and their armor had taken a while but netted him two full levels in enchanter. Dren really wanted to make the push for twenty five but he had just under two days left before he had to return to Maria. So he didn’t have time to sit and grind, though he did plan on at least enchanting more of the throwing daggers as they traveled.

Dressed in his new armor he glanced at Ren who was wearing her own set. She was still barefoot but wore leather anklets enchanted for space. They were considerably weaker than even his first boots. Rather than teleporting her around, it was almost like she flickered in place. Testing it he found that attacks could pass through her. The mana cost was high even for small attacks. But it greatly increased her defenses if not her mobility. But with her level ten ability being a short duration high agility boost, she was actually not that worse off than Dren for mobility. It did consume her stamina pool rapidly. But he was certain she could refine using it as he had his own abilities during the monster surge for greater efficiency.

“Ok. I promised to meet with the Purifier before we left. You all set Ren?” He asked his companion. In response, she stood up and stored what she was working on in her own storage pouch. “Alright, let's go.”

The walk from where he was staying to the Purifier's residence was quiet. Since both he and Ren were in stealth. In order to level the skill up and not so he could avoid an annoying archer girl. Though as he thought about it, she hadn’t been by to try and pester him since meeting outside the crafter's hall. Dren frowned as he felt an odd sense of… regret? But shrugged it off. Soon enough he was being led in to see the Purifier. She looked more or less the same as when they had first met. Only her slight pallid complexion revealed her recent trials.

“You are leaving now then?” She asked without any preamble.

“I have to get back to Maria to fulfill my debt to her now. We had a system contract.” Dren answered, with no hesitation on his part either. His time in the Haven hadn’t been bad. He had made progress while here, but every day here was its own sense of walking through a minefield. Would the system decide he was getting too friendly? It had been awfully quiet since that one time. But he always felt like it was lurking just out of sight watching him, just waiting for him to do something it didn’t like. If only he knew exactly what its goals were. No one knew what the system wanted. It appeared, bred conflict, and then normally all but vanished from a planet once it achieved whatever it was after. The system remained, but the “System” wasn’t really there anymore.

That was why integrations were so valuable. Places where the system’s attention was tended to be full of unique opportunities and explosive growth. A year on an integrating planet could be worth a hundred on an already integrated world for personal advancement. That is why no true powerhouses in the universe ever came from worlds after the system’s attention left. That was the real reason why so many wanted to invade new worlds. Not for the riches of the world, but simply because the potential power gains were staggering. Not that wealth wasn’t there. The amount of credits he had gained when the system store opened was many years worth of what his family could earn. Yet, it was just a drop in the bucket for what he hoped to achieve.

Dren was pulled from his thoughts when the Purifier spoke up. “Very well. You are always welcome to return here if you like. We have decided to call our Haven Little Garden by the way.”

Dren just nodded not really caring what the place was called. “Thank you again for saving Ren. It means a lot to me. I won’t forget it.”

“You helped us out quite a bit too.” Lily smiled at him. “I was serious you are welcome to stay here if you like. As you have seen we have skilled crafters. There are also strong parties you could join.” Her mouth quirked some before she added. “Including a rather fiery archer.” She almost laughed at the confused scowl he made. It was clear he had mixed feelings for the girl still. ‘I guess they never got things worked out. Oh well, they are still young.’

Dren shook his head. “Me and Ren work better solo. Also, we prefer dungeons.”

Lily nodded and seemed to pause thinking then gave a small nod as if to herself. “You have a map of the area correct?” Dren nodded. “Can I see it a moment?” He hesitated but then pulled it out. Picking up a pen the Purifier moved over and made two small marks on his map with a few notes. “These are dungeons we know of that no one else has discovered yet. Well, as far as we can tell. One is level thirty two. The other is level forty. These should be quite profitable for you. Assuming you can handle them alone?” She said the last part more as a question than a statement.

Dren’s eyes were alight with avarice as he spoke, his words rushing out. “Have the prime rewards been claimed for them yet?”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

There was only a small pause before she answered. “No, our teams have made it to the boss of the level thirty two dungeon. But it is level fourty two and quite tricky. As for the other, they have only killed some of the early monsters. The boss there would be fifty. As a guide, I can assure you that a level fifty boss would be something truly dangerous. Monsters can evolve at stages, and level fifty would be one such stage. The power increase can be monstrous. Any boss you fight will definitely have evolved if possible.” Dren nodded but his eyes hadn’t lost any of their fire. His very best rewards had been Prime Rewards. Ren had been a Prime Reward. While he wasn’t really interested in more companions. Loot of that level couldn’t be underestimated.

*****

Fully geared and restocked Dren passed through the gate of Little Garden before summoning his lizard mount. Despite the mixed response he had recieved from the various citizens of the Little Garden. Most had come to see him off. With people crowded along the walls, around the gate, and even standing outside the gates around the moat. He thought it a bit silly. Was seeing a rare class really that big a deal?

At least he understood their shock at seeing the mount. As far as he knew, no one else had one. It was a prime reward after all. Jumping up on the things wide back with Ren at his side he glanced back over the crowd. There was a small pang of regret at not seeing Kitty the archer there. The feeling was quickly replaced with grumpiness. Why should he be upset she didn’t come to see him off? He had spent most of the last five days avoiding her. It was a stupid way to feel, and it annoyed him he still felt it. With a sigh, he urged his mount to take off at full speed. They had less than two days to get back to Maria. Dren forced himself not to look back as they raced off at impressive speed. Did his mount’s speed increase as his own did? It was considerably faster than before. Maybe they would get back to town early. Just as soon as he did whatever favor Maria wanted he was going to hit up these dungeons. He needed to gain power and quickly.

*****

Kitty snickered to herself. “You aren’t the only one with the stealth skill.” She hunched down with her cowl covering her head while hiding behind the tree. That annoying boy would definitely pass by here. She would jump out and scare the shit out of him before forcing him to take her with him. She was a rare class now, standing guard duty just wouldn’t do. Uncle Mike would certainly be upset but he would get over it. She was too old to be coddled by her Uncle anymore. A noise snapped her out of her thoughts and she prepared to jump out. Only for a huge green blur to rush down the road. It took her a few seconds to realize what had happened and she jumped out into the road to shout at the distant image of the giant lizard. It had been fast! Far faster than the last time she had seen it.

“Damn it! That stupid dense idiot. Running off without even… ARGG when I catch up to him.” She shifted her backpack and started angrily marching after her target.

*****

Dren was almost used to the odd crowd forming around him as he rode through gates. But he wasn’t expecting to see someone else produce a mount of their own just after he arrived. A huge silver furred wolf. Dren wasn’t annoyed by that at all. Nor did he feel like they somehow stole his own uniqueness by also having a mount. He memorized the grinning face of the bulky armored man totally for safety reasons. And not to later murder if he got a chance to.

Nor was he surprised when Maria was there the moment he dismounted. Smiling brightly as she curtsied a greeting. Just as before the sound of the crowd vanished and no one seemed able to move closer. Dren was sure it was a skill that provided this odd display. “Welcome back. I see that you worked out a deal with the Purifier.” She smiled at Ren.

“You could have told me about the Monster Surge.” Dren mostly kept the annoyed tone out of his voice. Had he known that he just needed to wait for the surge to be announced and offer to fight for Little Garden. Things would have gone smoother. Instead, he had been sent bumbling blind.

“I’m sorry. But I had no clue that a monster surge was going to happen. How would that have helped?” She seemed genuinely confused for a moment then understanding washed over her face. “I see Lily must not have gotten her people back in time.” She smiled. “But you arrived just in time to save them. I wondered how things would work out. But I just knew they would.” She smiled while accessing his true status. Had she not been prepared to hide any reaction she might have given away her surprise. He had evolved his class?

That was not something she had foreseen from him. He hadn’t finished his first kill quest so the Slayer path was still locked to him. Where had he found the prerequisite for this Profane Blade class? It wasn’t one that had shown up in any of her predictions. The invader that she expected to arrive was supposed to have leveled by repeatedly farming some low level spider dungeon with a party of natives he had infiltrated. Then a group of natives was to ambush his party and start the chain of events that lead him to flee north.

Nowhere in her original predictions had she seen this evolution. Something must have changed from her first readings. Perhaps she needed to go back and review them instead of only looking forward. But, she guessed this was fine. It would make the next stage of her plans easier.

“Come with me.” Maria spoke even as she turned towards the same restaurant as before. Soon enough they were in the empty room, and her skill to isolate the room had been activated.

“What favor do you want?” Dren asked wanting to get this over with as soon as possible. But also curious about what this strange woman could want from him. It was obvious she had access to more information than he could even guess at.

“Straight to business, I see. I guessed as much so I won’t drag things out. I need you to kill the Haven Lord of Necropolis and start the process of claiming the Haven for yourself.” She smiled prettily as she made her request for murder bluntly.

Dren nodded he had been ready to accept anything after all. “Ok.” Then paused. “Wait, what?”

*****

Character Status

Name: Dren Race: Human (I) Class: Profane Blade (5) Profession: Enchanter (23) Health: 3450/3450 Stamina: 3450/3450 Mana: 2850/2850 Credits: 6,970 Agility 110 Dexterity 110 Endurance 138 Intelligence 114 Spirit 89 Strength 113 Toughness 113 Vitality 138 Dungeon Competency 60% Solo Dungeon Competency 50%